The clerks in your brick-and-mortar store (assuming that you have one) represent your brand and all of its values when interacting with customers. You have specific policies in terms of appropriate attire expected from your employees, as well as attitudes, and the knowledge required to do their jobs well. If a customer were to be greeted with a confused shrug every time they had a question, they’d likely never come back to your store. The same would happen if the clerk were wearing a tutu skirt and a bikini top, selling urns.
It’s no different with your website. Merely replace the confused shrug with a messy, ad-riddled landing page, or a missing security certificate from your check-out page. It’s annoying, doesn’t elicit trust, and it sure as hell won’t inspire anyone to come back any time soon.
It’s evident from these simple, but not isolated examples that the aesthetics of your site can be vital for the perception your customers have of your brand and the potential outcomes of those interactions.
Establishing trustworthiness
If a brand experiments with colors, it can be construed as playful and adaptive to a specific campaign or digital environment, but it can also be seen as confusing. Consistency in the visual presentation of your brand on your site enables your customers to recall your brand, connect the dots, and feel comfortable trusting you with their money. If your logo, overall website design, and imagery are all drastically -different from how you present yourself on, say, social media or in your store, you risk losing their trust.
Let your customers immediately recognize your brand as soon as they land on your website. The visual content should match your identity and your promise, and allow them to see you as truthful and transparent.
Increasing website traffic
Do the numbers agree with your assessment of your website and its look and feel? If not, you have an opportunity to tap into the data you collect and see where your site fails to impress your audience. As you’ll notice, your customers will consistently spend more time on well-designed pages, read well-structured articles, and purchase well-represented products.
Maximizing the potential of your website’s look starts with using your digital marketing reporting software to understand the gaps in your existing design and spot the most attractive segments based on various KPIs. From your bounce rate, average time per page, all the way to the average duration of each session on your site, you can use the information to then adapt the layout, navigation, and other visual elements of your site that are stifling your traffic and conversions.
Showcasing your security assurance
Customers are getting smarter every day, and they will only leave their most sensitive information (and their cash) with brands whose website clearly indicates security measures across the board. So, if you’ve managed to impress your customer with a stellar website, superb track record from other customers based on testimonials, and you’ve defeated your competitors with your product selection, it’s time to seal the deal – quite literally so.
Using security seals and badges on your site lets you send a clear message with the help of these simple, straightforward visuals: it’s safe to buy from us. It would be a pity to have spent all that time on tweaking your website structure only to fail so majestically because of such a simple omission. Make sure that each relevant page of your site strategically emphasizes your trust seals and security measures to make your customers feel safe with your brand.
Enabling brand awareness through consistency
Another long-term consequence of design consistency on your site is stronger brand awareness. In turn, brand awareness is the gateway to customer loyalty that no business can afford to neglect. The overarching look of your site creates the necessary basis for brand recognition, only to build on that wave of relevance to help customers associate specific emotions, values, and promises that your brand stands for.
The look of your site plays more than a marginal role in this process, because the visuals, the navigation, and the layout of your site all need to correspond with your identity traits such as your innovative spirit, generosity, honesty, and integrity. One smart design solution at a time, and you have an entire business development strategy built into your website.
The site you build and continue developing for your brand is not merely a digital storefront, but also an extension of your brand identity, of your values, your promise, mission, and vision. The more you invest in updating your identity while retaining its essence through content creation, the greater your chances are to stand out for your target audience and be remembered for future purchases.
Add to that, the appeal of your site will inspire them to recommend you to others, which will inevitably create an opportune loop for growth. To conclude, there’s nothing superficial about appearance. It’s as functional and substantial as every other aspect of your brand, and it should be treated accordingly.
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